High-end sex ring in Boston and D.C. was 'honeypot' scheme by Russia, China, South Korea

Daily Mail

Intelligence experts are becoming increasingly convinced that six high end brothels in the suburbs of Boston and Washington, D.C. were set up by a foreign nation as an espionage 'honeytrap'.

They believe the brothels – allegedly masterminded by a 41-year-old South Korean woman – targeted politicians, high ranking government officials and defense contractors.

But the mystery is which country was behind the scheme. Russia, China, Korea itself, or even Israel are al seen as possibly being behind the scheme.

'Having the Koreans out front could have been a false flag to give China or another country plausible deniability if the plot unraveled,' a one-time CIA senior operations officer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

The brothels were raided in November and prosecutors said they were looking to charge 28 people in Massachusetts alone.



The lingerie and bikini clad 'models' advertised on the brothel's website included, Yoko and Tiffany who were offered as a 'duo' for photographers looking for a modeling twosome-

Joshua Levy, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the state said his office will seek 'accountability for the buyers who fuel the commercial sex industry'.

Members of Congress, military officers, and national security contractors who 'possessed security clearances' were among the steady customers at the 'high-end brothels' run by the ring, prosecutors say.

The ring's clients, who paid rates of up to $600 an hour, included corporate executives, professors, lawyers, and scientists.

To entice customers, the Lees allegedly set up websites whose purported purpose was helping photographers find nude female models looking for work. Investigators believe the ring had made more than $1 million by the time it was busted.

Two of the brothels operated from units in luxury apartment buildings in the Virginia suburbs outside the capital, which are each about a 15-minute drive from the White House, Congress, Pentagon and CIA.

'The most valuable information in Washington and Boston are government secrets,' a former foreign spy who is well acquainted with honeypots told DailyMail.com.

'If you open a prostitution business that caters to wealthy clients in those cities, you'll get a lot of people walking through the doors that have access to them.

'The girls start by asking for a small favor that's at the edge of the target's comfort zone and try to keep expanding the zone and turn small favors into big favors,' said the ex-CIA officer.

A honeypot aims to obtain compromising information, but weaponizing it is rare because it's counterproductive to the primary goal: recruiting agents that have access to state secrets.

'It's easy to get blackmailable information into public, but that creates a public scandal,' explained the source.

'Your target loses his job, his life is destroyed and so is his value.'